Badger culling in the UK is currently being considered in an attempt to prevent the spread of bovine tubeculosis, which affects both cattle and badgers, as well as deer, dogs, cats, horses and goats. Farmers have long thought that their herds have been infected by badgers and there is much anecdotal evidence. However the independent scientific group’s final report stated unequivocally,”Badger culling can make no meaningful contribution to cattle TB control.” Moreover,some scientists believe that it is not the badgers infecting the cattle but the cattle infecting the badgers.

Many campaigns have been launched opposing the cull: The Wildlife Trust, the Badger Trust and the RSPCA. The guitarist Brian May has spearheaded an epetition which currently has over 100 000 signatures in the hope of prompting a parliamentary debate. Though the fluffy images of badgers and accompanying text about their beauty doesn’t move me to oppose the cull, the evidence does seem to suggest  it could be pretty pointless. Studies of culled badgers and those killed by cars showed about 15% of them were infected with TB.This suggests that any cull where the badgers are shot at random means that most of the victims are likely to be healthy animals.

The alternative to culling is vaccination. In 2010, Defra licenced a vaccine, the Badger BCG, which can only be used on uninfected animals and delivered by injection. The government’s position is that, in England, the vaccine should be used alongside culling. This is chiefly because of the cost of vaccinations,estimated to be at £2250 per square kilometre per annum, a cost which most landowners and farmers have no interest in paying themselves.Scotland has been declared TB -free and Wales are vaccinating instead of culling.The proposed culling in England allows “free shooting” (marksmen with firearms). Two trials have ben proposed at a cost of £7 million per trial area. Protesters have threatened to boycott the milk from areas which have culled badgers.

As somebody who drinks raw milk, I have a keen interest that the government do the right thing but the figures really don’t stack up. Dairy cows are tested regularly for TB and as most people drink pasteurised milk there is little threat to human health.  5.5 million TB tests were carried out on on cattle in 2011. 26000 were slaughtered for TB control.The risk of infection is relatively small though increasing marginally each year. The average cost of an outbreak of TB on a farm is £30000 of which the farmer pays £10000 and the public pay £20000. The 26000 cattle slaughtered in 2011 cost the taxpayer £100million. It is obvious why famers and DEFRA think some action should be taken but a cull is expected to achieve only a 9-16% reduction in disease incidence over nine years which seems a very small return on many dead badgers.